The 5-3-1 Dinner Challenge

The 5-3-1 Dinner Challenge takes place over the dinner hour either once a week or for a solid 8 days each month, depending on what works best for a particular family. Here’s how to play the game:

1. Write the 5 values (Honesty, Respect, Responsibility, Self-Discipline, Goodness), 3 life strategies (Critical Thinking, Gratitude and Resiliency) and 1 purpose (Serving a higher purpose than yourself) down on 9 separate pieces of paper.
2. At the beginning of the meal, have the youngest child pick the first piece of paper and hand it to the person to his/her left.
3. The family member who was chosen will go first by reading what is on the piece of paper and asking everyone at the table to help define the word(s) on the paper.
4. The family member must think of an example during the past month where he/she or someone they knew demonstrated the particular character trait listed on the paper that they drew. (The family member telling the story can have a few minutes to think before starting the story).
5. Everyone must listen respectfully while the person is talking and wait until the end before asking any questions.
6. After completing the example, he/she gets to ask anyone at the table to make up a possible (realistic) situation where they might get to apply this character trait sometime in the future.
7. The person who told the story at the beginning of dinner gets to choose who goes first the next time the game is played.
8. The next time the game is played, the person that was chosen starts from direction # 3, choosing a piece of paper him/herself from the remaining pieces of paper.
9. The process continues until all of the pieces of paper are gone.
   
   Note: Family members should rotate through the entire family for who gets chosen to tell the first story and the second story can come from anyone who the first person chooses. After all 9 topics have been covered, the game can be replayed with different people drawing different character traits, telling brand new stories.